Driving in this morning, I caught NPR news fragments on the Spitzer scandal, complete with an interview of Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz. Prof. Dershowitz was going on and on about how our public figures’ private sex lives should be of no account, and many great leaders from Thomas Jefferson to John Kennedy proved that their busy private sexual lives did not affect their abilities in office.

To paraphrase Aretha Franklin, I ain’t no Harvard law professor; I ain’t no doctor with degrees. But it don’t take too much IQ to see that you, sir, are a freaking idiot.

If this were a simple case of private sexual infidelity, then I think your point would be well taken. But it’s not.

This is the guy who was using prostitutes while prosecuting prostitution rings. This is the guy who spent his time in office traveling out of state for his little buddy’s pleasure. This is the guy who may have been moving money around illegally.

Now to be fair, there is a certain amount of righteous indignation because Gov. Spitzer portrayed himself as the highest and best. And it probably gets worse because his modern-day public official perv-walk was taken with his wife glued dutifully to his side during the press conference that broke it all.

The other thing is that it’s not clear to me that criminalizing the world’s oldest profession is wise. I’ve heard good arguments on both sides of this issue, and I think fair minded and thoughtful people disagree. Even so, that’s not the issue either.

Let’s be clear. This isn’t about private sexual conduct. It’s about a public official who put himself above the law and got caught.

No doubt Prof. Dershowitz can draw this distinction. If he cannot, I’ll stop believing that Harvard law grads have a leg up on their young lawyer peers by dint of the reputation of their school.

As a kid, I was always a little heartbroken when some athlete, musician or star who I idolized turned out to be a heel. I imagine my adult feelings of disappointment are linked to that heartbroken kid. But this is also something of a reminder about celebrity. We confuse celebrity with intimacy at our own peril. I guess those of us who previously held a high opinion of Governor Spitzer now realize that we didn’t know Jack about the guy.

David F. Sugerman

Revised: 12 Mar. 2008 11:25 a.m:

Addendum: Oh, now I get it. According to this report Mr. Spitzer was one of Prof. Dershowitz’s star students at Harvard law and even worked for the professor. But I’m sure that’s coincidence.